Holy Angel University supports entertainment endeavors

MANILA, Philippines — Three years ago, Angeles City’s Holy Angel University (HAU) produced an indie film, ARI: My Life with a King, starring Coco Martin’s younger brother Ronwaldo Martin, poet Francisco Guinto (New Wave Best Actor at the 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival) and Cecile Yumul. It was directed by Carlo Enciso Catu (Best Debut Film Director at the 2015 All Lights India International Film Festival and Best New Talented Director at the 2016 London International Filmmakers Film Festival) and written by Robby Tantingco (HAU’s VP for student services and affairs and director for the Center for Kapampangan Studies; winner of the 2016 FAMAS Best Story, 2016 Gawad Urian Best Screenplay, and 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival’s Best New Wave Screenplay). The film received the Best World Film award at the Harlem International Film Festival in New York and has been named one of the 50 Best Films of the 21st Century by film critics, archivists, curators and members of the academe. This year, HAU has a new film, ARIA, also directed by Catu and topbilled by Liya Sarmiento, a veteran of Kapampangan short films, as a rising zarzuelan star on the eve of the World War II.

HAU has partnered with ABS-CBN in workshop caravans and other activities and has also been the favorite venue of the CineKabalen Film Festival (where Allen Dizon was recently honored), PARAGALA Awards, concerts (the latest of which was the Rico J. Puno and Rey Valera concert) and conferences (such as the ACUP, I Am Real: Rising Above Fake News, UNESCO APNIEVE, and first international research conference on Big History). 

The HAU Chorale

The HAU Chorale, a group that won Gold at the 10th Fukushima Ensemble Competition in Japan, performed during the Big History meet, which was attended by Dr. John Haught of Georgetown University, Dr. Mojgan Behmand of Dominican University of California and Dr. Daniel Hauser of Illinois’ University of St. Francis.

During the parallel sessions, the anthropological, literary and spiritual dimensions of the Kapampangan pasyon through the lens of Big History as well as the famous dish sisig in light of Kapampangan identity, among others, were discussed.  

Meanwhile, in October during the 2018 National Forum on Character, HAU will receive the international “Promising Practice” award in Washington, D.C. from Character.org, an advocacy group that gives voice to the character movement by providing leadership to optimize success and lead to stronger communities.

Jay Garcia and Liya Sarmiento lead the cast of ARIA

HAU has also been chosen for its No Student Left Behind campaign that assigns student-tutors to struggling students and motivates students to donate free meals to fellow students who cannot afford it. The objective is to minimize failing grades so that all students will graduate on schedule and it is designed to “inspire volunteerism among students and teach them the value of compassion.”

Concluded HAU president Dr. Luis Maria Calingo: “Nowhere is our university’s mission of transforming students into persons of conscience, competence and compassion more manifested than in our No Student Left Behind program. I am thankful to the students, employees and alumni who have generously supported this important advocacy of HAU as a National School of Character.”